Deuteronomy 32

Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

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Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.

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I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Oh, praise the greatness of our God!

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He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.

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They have acted corruptly toward him; to their shame they are no longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation.

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Is this the way you repay the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?

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Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you.

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When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.

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For the LORD's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance.

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In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye,

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like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions.

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The LORD alone led him; no foreign god was with him.

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He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him with the fruit of the fields. He nourished him with honey from the rock, and with oil from the flinty crag,

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with curds and milk from herd and flock and with fattened lambs and goats, with choice rams of Bashan and the finest kernels of wheat. You drank the foaming blood of the grape.

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Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; filled with food, he became heavy and sleek. He abandoned the God who made him and rejected the Rock his Savior.

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They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols.

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They sacrificed to demons, which are not God-- gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear.

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You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.

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The LORD saw this and rejected them because he was angered by his sons and daughters.

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"I will hide my face from them," he said, "and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful.

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They made me jealous by what is no god and angered me with their worthless idols. I will make them envious by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding.

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For a fire has been kindled by my wrath, one that burns to the realm of death below. It will devour the earth and its harvests and set afire the foundations of the mountains.

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"I will heap calamities upon them and spend my arrows against them.

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I will send wasting famine against them, consuming pestilence and deadly plague; I will send against them the fangs of wild beasts, the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.

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In the street the sword will make them childless; in their homes terror will reign. Young men and young women will perish, infants and gray-haired men.

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I said I would scatter them and blot out their memory from mankind,

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but I dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest the adversary misunderstand and say, `Our hand has triumphed; the LORD has not done all this.'"

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They are a nation without sense, there is no discernment in them.

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If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be!

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How could one man chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?

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For their rock is not like our Rock, as even our enemies concede.

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Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are filled with poison, and their clusters with bitterness.

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Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras.

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"Have I not kept this in reserve and sealed it in my vaults?

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It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them."

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The LORD will judge his people and have compassion on his servants when he sees their strength is gone and no one is left, slave or free.

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He will say: "Now where are their gods, the rock they took refuge in,

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the gods who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up to help you! Let them give you shelter!

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"See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand.

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I lift my hand to heaven and declare: As surely as I live forever,

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when I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand grasps it in judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and repay those who hate me.

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I will make my arrows drunk with blood, while my sword devours flesh: the blood of the slain and the captives, the heads of the enemy leaders."

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Rejoice, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants; he will take vengeance on his enemies and make atonement for his land and people.

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Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people.

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When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel,

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he said to them, "Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law.

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They are not just idle words for you--they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess."

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On that same day the LORD told Moses,

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"Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession.

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There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.

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This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites.

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Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel."

Deuteronomy 33

1

This is the blessing that Moses the man of God pronounced on the Israelites before his death.

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He said: "The LORD came from Sinai and dawned over them from Seir; he shone forth from Mount Paran. He came with myriads of holy ones from the south, from his mountain slopes.

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Surely it is you who love the people; all the holy ones are in your hand. At your feet they all bow down, and from you receive instruction,

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the law that Moses gave us, the possession of the assembly of Jacob.

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He was king over Jeshurun when the leaders of the people assembled, along with the tribes of Israel.

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"Let Reuben live and not die, nor his men be few."

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And this he said about Judah: "Hear, O LORD, the cry of Judah; bring him to his people. With his own hands he defends his cause. Oh, be his help against his foes!"

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About Levi he said: "Your Thummim and Urim belong to the man you favored. You tested him at Massah; you contended with him at the waters of Meribah.

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He said of his father and mother, `I have no regard for them.' He did not recognize his brothers or acknowledge his own children, but he watched over your word and guarded your covenant.

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He teaches your precepts to Jacob and your law to Israel. He offers incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar.

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Bless all his skills, O LORD, and be pleased with the work of his hands. Smite the loins of those who rise up against him; strike his foes till they rise no more."

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About Benjamin he said: "Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders."

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About Joseph he said: "May the LORD bless his land with the precious dew from heaven above and with the deep waters that lie below;

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with the best the sun brings forth and the finest the moon can yield;

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with the choicest gifts of the ancient mountains and the fruitfulness of the everlasting hills;

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with the best gifts of the earth and its fullness and the favor of him who dwelt in the burning bush. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers.

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In majesty he is like a firstborn bull; his horns are the horns of a wild ox. With them he will gore the nations, even those at the ends of the earth. Such are the ten thousands of Ephraim; such are the thousands of Manasseh."

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About Zebulun he said: "Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out, and you, Issachar, in your tents.

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They will summon peoples to the mountain and there offer sacrifices of righteousness; they will feast on the abundance of the seas, on the treasures hidden in the sand."

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About Gad he said: "Blessed is he who enlarges Gad's domain! Gad lives there like a lion, tearing at arm or head.

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He chose the best land for himself; the leader's portion was kept for him. When the heads of the people assembled, he carried out the LORD's righteous will, and his judgments concerning Israel."

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About Dan he said: "Dan is a lion's cub, springing out of Bashan."

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About Naphtali he said: "Naphtali is abounding with the favor of the LORD and is full of his blessing; he will inherit southward to the lake."

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About Asher he said: "Most blessed of sons is Asher; let him be favored by his brothers, and let him bathe his feet in oil.

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The bolts of your gates will be iron and bronze, and your strength will equal your days.

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"There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens to help you and on the clouds in his majesty.

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The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemy before you, saying, `Destroy him!'

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So Israel will live in safety alone; Jacob's spring is secure in a land of grain and new wine, where the heavens drop dew.

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Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD? He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. Your enemies will cower before you, and you will trample down their high places. "

Deuteronomy 34

1

Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the LORD showed him the whole land--from Gilead to Dan,

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all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea,

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the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar.

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Then the LORD said to him, "This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, `I will give it to your descendants.' I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it."

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And Moses the servant of the LORD died there in Moab, as the LORD had said.

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He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is.

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Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone.

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The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over.

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Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him. So the Israelites listened to him and did what the LORD had commanded Moses.

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Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,

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who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the LORD sent him to do in Egypt--to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land.

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For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.